On the occasion of World Refugee Day on 20 June, we tell the stories of some of the refugees and...

June 19, 2017

June 19, 2017 11:23

World Refugee Day 2017: Theatre and Integration

Refugee children in Lebanon

On the occasion of World Refugee Day on 20 June, we tell the stories of some of the refugees and displaced people that are supported by our members.

Waleed, 30 years old, has escaped from war torn Syria. He fled to Lebanon by himself and then he managed to get his elderly mother to join him. He left everything in Syria: home, friends, a brother and a job that he loved. He was a builder, of the very houses that are now rubble.

Waleed was a normal kid before the war in Syria. He loved theatre and because of this he joined the Cesvi initiatives that seek to facilitate integration between Syrian refugees and the Lebanese community that hosts them.

Hussein, a distinguished Lebanese, performs with Waleed on the same stage. During the civil war he lost everything and has struggled to rebuild a home and a life.

Waleed and Hussein swap parts in a simple story of a Syrian family, evacuated because of the war, which has to pay rent but doesn’t have the money to do so. A common situation at Joun, the village of Mount Lebanon in which we of Cesvi work. The Syrian family finds an envelope under the door with the money and doesn’t know who left it there. At the end of the show it turns out to have been the owner of the house who, during the Lebanese war, was hosted by a Syrian family and now wants to repay his debt for all he had received in the past.

**************This story is part of Alliance2015 World Refugee Day campaign, featuring stories of refugees supported by our members. For more information about the campaign and other stories, please click here.